Sometimes There Just Aren’t Enough Backups

2010 has come and gone and 2011 has arrived. With it comes opportunities. Ones for fresh starts. For doing the things we intended to do last year, but didn’t. Opportunities to review our pasts and set our eyes on our futures.

Change is hard for us. We get comfortable and when things upset our apple carts, we typically first react with annoyance or, in some cases, despair. A few weeks ago, my domain file corrupted. I had over 79,000 things on that site, and 4 other sites that corrupted as well.

I’ve been faithful about making backups. So much so that my “non-corrupt” copy was overwritten by my corrupt copy–a fact possible, I learned, after the overwrite and corruption occurred. My safekeeping copy was also corrupted and the disk safe-safekeeping backup copy.

They all got zapped.

And so the reality of having to redo and recreate set in. I promised myself a good attitude. Focus on the solution, not the problem. And I worked exclusively on this from arising to konking out for over a week. But tonight, it’s done.

I have a uniform, clean site. I have a separate book site. I have recreated the additional sites. And I’ve diversified segments on them so that never again will I have to recreate everything–even if backups do corrupt.

There were low points. Like when I discovered that I couldn’t import a blog because I couldn’t get it in the right format. After a little muttering, I set out recreating. And after I’d done the last of them–days of work–I discovered that the file in the correct format could have been had, though everyone I asked said it couldn’t. But in doing all this work, I discovered a way that I now can share with others.

So I’ve learned a lot and gotten new sites and diversified. Not a painless task. Not an easy one without sacrifice, as this happened during the holidays when I was supposed to finally have some time off. But good has come from it.

In addition to the new sites all cleaned up and shiny, I gained a few new skills. But maybe the best thing I discovered is that faced with calm and focused on the solution, not the problem, forcing myself to slow down and think before acting, I didn’t lose any of the 79,000 plus documents/tidbits/graphics, and I didn’t make myself sick with tension. There was no tension. Just nose down determination and lots of prayers that nothing else corrupted and wiped things out before I could get them.

Calm prevailed. And won.

So I start the new year a wee bit tired, but also excited. What was viewed as a bad thing actually turned out to be a good thing–a fresh start. Learning lessons come all throughout our lives. We can’t avoid them. But it’s nice to know that sometimes they’re good things–proverbial blessings in disguise. So I guess that makes it a blessing too that sometimes there just aren’t enough backups.

Seize your fresh start this 1/1/11 day and remember the solutions focus holds the key to calm. Remember that even when there aren’t enough backups, you’re being given the opportunity for a fresh start.

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About Vicki HinzeUSA Today Bestselling and Award-Winning Author of 40+ books, short stories/novellas and hundreds of articles. Published in as many as 63 countries. Featured Columnist for Social-IN Worldwide Network and Book Fun Magazine. Sponsor/Founder of ChristiansRead.com & CleanReadBooks.com. FMI visit www.vickihinze.com.